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The new Scottish horror-drama Shepherd<\/em> suffers from a classic case of Dead Wife Syndrome, a storytelling ailment where a protagonist\u2019s longing for\/guilt over their deceased spouse dictates the plot in a reductive, predictable way. The primary symptom of this common disease is a flashback where the dead wife looks over her shoulder at the camera as sunlight frames her hair, which is tousled in an unselfconsciously sexy way. In Shepherd<\/em>, that standard-issue flashback comes when the wife is walking on a chilly Scottish beach in a tartan skirt and leather jacket, blissfully unaware of the frigid death that awaits her in the sea beyond.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t the only box on the DWS checklist that Shepherd<\/em> ticks, either. It also features a conspicuously placed ultrasound photo indicating she was pregnant when she died. And a protagonist experiencing frequent jump-scare nightmares about her funeral. And unspoken secrets about the circumstances of her death. <\/em>All the symptoms are present: Shepherd<\/em>\u2019s diagnosis is indisputable. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible for a film to overcome Dead Wife Syndrome \u2014 take The Changeling<\/em>, the 1980 haunted-house classic that begins with George C. Scott retreating to a secluded mansion to mourn his wife and daughter. But Shepherd<\/em> isn\u2019t unique enough to beat the condition. A Discovery of Witches<\/em>\u2019 Tom Hughes stars as Eric Black, the grieving husband, who takes a job as a solitary caretaker for a flock of sheep on a remote island off Scotland\u2019s western coast. When the movie begins, Eric\u2019s wife and unborn child are already dead, so he can\u2019t be driven to murder them. Beyond that, <\/em>parallels to Stephen King\u2019s The Shining<\/em> begin right away with the introduction of a milky-eyed sea captain played by Kate Dickie, the British character actor who starred in The Witch<\/em> <\/em>and was recently spotted in The Green Knight<\/em> and The Northman<\/em>. <\/p>\n